The Witcher season 3 recap guide: All 8 episodes explained

The Witcher season 3 episode 2 recap: Unbound

Ciri and Yennefer have begun their long journey to Aretuza. They stop at an outdoor tavern where Ciri crosses paths with the royal messenger Aplegatt (Jim Sturgeon). She has a vision of his death and tries to warn him, but Yennefer prevents her from doing so, advising Ciri to be careful with how she chooses to intervene as changing destiny is a weighty business.

Geralt and Jaskier visit Codringher (Simon Callow) and Fenn (Liz Carr) to get information on Rience. They claim to not know who Rience is working for, but Fenn does tell Geralt that the mysterious sorcerer in question is conducting his business at a castle called Vuilpanne near the old scarlet ammonite mines on the outskirts of Piana in west Redania.

Before departing, they make a comment about Geralt’s “Elder Blood princess,” and inform him Istredd (Royce Pierreson) has come searching for her. Geralt goes to Vuilpanne, alone, not wanting Jaskier to come to any more harm.

Elsewhere, Yennefer and Ciri visit the sorceress Keira Metz (Katie McGuinness) in Gors Velen for a portal to Aretuza. While there, a gruff man comes in with a prisoner on his arm. Ciri has a vision of him being brutally killed, so she cuts him free, pissing off the man, who we learn works for the powerful businessman Dominik Bombastus Houvenaghel.

By freeing the child prisoner, Yennefer is forced to kill the man so he doesn’t murder Ciri. Keira panics and tells Yennefer that if she doesn’t want to end up dead, they better run, and then Keira takes a portal and escapes.

Once clear of the village, Yennefer lectures Ciri on the importance of using discretion over valor. Ciri wants to be a judicial ruler who helps people, consequences be damned. But Yennefer tells her that now, because of her actions, countless people will die for Houvenaghel to recoup his losses with blood and money. The townspeople who do survive his wrath will be conscripted to fight, where they’ll die from battle, disease, or starvation. She saved one life in exchange for hundreds.

Ciri is frustrated that she can see the future yet cannot change it. Ciri snarks that Yennefer doesn’t understand because she can use her magic to change anything. How would she know what it’s like to fight to control her life? Of course, Yennefer knows full well and decides to take a detour so she can show Ciri where she came from.

They go to the place where Yennefer used to live, and she shows Ciri visions of herself when she was younger, before Aretuza. The only way for them to change this is to control their Chaos, that’s true power. She tells Ciri how her decision to free Cahir resulted in turning the North against the Brotherhood and the Brotherhood against each other. Their actions have consequences that can ripple across the entire Continent.

At Aretuza, tensions are growing within the Brotherhood. Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen) just wants to kill Ciri and be done with it, but Tissaia (MyAnna Buring) and Triss (Anna Shaffer) tell him they need to chill, regroup, and plan accordingly. Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu) agrees. He and Tissaia are still going strong. He even gives her a bracelet as a symbol of his love.

In Redania, Philippa whips Dijkstra for some reason. Apparently, he’s a masochist. She tells him that Radovid might be smarter than they initially realized. And elsewhere, Radovid is busy flirting with Jaskier, asking him to play a song for him and his friends at a quaint gathering.

Geralt faces off against a truly monstrous abomination at Vuilpanne. It’s a giant, fleshy monster comprised of bodies of young girls who have been tormented and experimented upon. There is only one survivor, a young, ashen-haired female named Teryn (Frances Pooley), who looks mysteriously like Ciri. After slaughtering the creature, Geralt rescues Teryn and takes her with him. She introduces herself as Ciri! Someone has made this girl think she’s the real princess of Cintra.

Back at Codringher and Fenn’s, Rience shows up and sets their entire place ablaze, seemingly killing them both (but he does save their cat).

Also of importance is this episode is our first sighting of Fringilla (Mimi Ndiweni) in The Witcher season 3. She’s being held in the bowels of Cintra, forced to become a poison tester for the emperor. Her job is simply to drink wine all day and ensure it isn’t poisoned. But Fringilla sees a way out when one of her fellow poison testers dies. She slips into the body bag and escapes when they dump him outside.

We also catch up with Cahir (Eamon Farren), and he’s not fairing much better. Emhyr has punished both of them for trying to deceive him and for the mistakes they made in the second season. Cahir has been sent out on missions to attack convoys, security detail basically. He runs into Gallatin on his path, and the two decide to become allies.